U.S. Pat. No. Re35,022, granted Aug. 22, 1995, to Raymond Keith Foster, and entitled Reduced Size Drive-Frame Assembly For A Reciprocating Slat Conveyor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the conveyor slats are connected to transverse drive beams which are in turn connected to linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors move the drive beams and the drive beams move the conveyor slats that are connected to them.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,054, granted Sep. 27, 1994, to Raymond Keith Foster, and entitled Ball Block For Mounting Linear Motor, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor in which the transverse drive beams are physically separated from the linear hydraulic motors. The linear hydraulic motors are connected to selected conveyor slats that are directly driven by the linear hydraulic motors. The driven conveyor slats are connected to the remaining conveyor slats by the transverse drive beams.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,009, granted Jun. 25, 2002, to Raymond Keith Foster, and entitled Conveyor Slat And Connection Method, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,293, granted Jun. 10, 2003, to Raymond Keith Foster, each discloses apparatus for connecting conveyor slats to transverse drive beams.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,870, granted Sep. 3, 1999, to Raymond Keith Foster, and entitled Method For Collecting And Compacting Garbage And Then Loading It Into A Road Vehicle, discloses a reciprocating slat conveyor composed of laterally spaced apart moving conveying slats and laterally spaced apart fixed conveyor slats that are located between the movable conveyor slats.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/330,614, filed Jan. 12, 2006, by Raymond Keith Foster, and entitled Reciprocating Slat Conveyor With Bearing Planks On Fixed Slats Between Moving Slats relates to bearing members carried by the fixed slats on which the moving conveyor slats are supported for longitudinal movement.
The present invention provides an improvement on the conveyor that is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,870. The improvement includes the use of some technology disclosed in the above-identified U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,350,054; 6,409,009; 6,575,293; Re35,022 and/or in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/330,614. The contents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,870 are incorporated herein by this specific reference.